Recent reviews by Dalek Thal

Great game, but Cashcom added post-launch DRM, which is, put simply, not on, as the player(s) are unable to play the game without dealing with DRM that they did not agree to, nor were aware of, the presence of.

Abandoned early access software. Don't bother.

If you haven't played it yet, I wholeheartedly recommend you try it out

Updated - 4th January 2024:

I must emphasise that this game is decent at first, but very quickly goes downhill. The mostly negative rating is well-deserved; the game is empty, and overrelies on copy-paste to create its worlds and narrative (which is a rehashing of Skyrim).

There aren't many games I regret buying. This is one of them.

Was a totally unnecessary inclusion for people who played Early Access. It is also greatly appreciated, and honestly? It's some good content. The artbook and soundtrack alone are worth the asking price, the extra ingame goodies are the cherry on top.

To start off, I must establish that this review is specifically for the Necrom expansion, and not for the entirety of Update 38. This review is also based on about four hours of gameplay in the Telvanni Peninsula, and by extension, with the new Arcanist class. It is to be read in the context of my review of the base game.

Everything positive I had to say about the base game (the story, characters and world design, including exploration) still holds very, very true. In addition though, Necrom has done two things very, very right, and as such resolves my reasoning behind the negative review (which will not be changed, as these things are not available without purchasing the expansion).

The Telvanni Peninsula contains challenging, and truly engaging combat encounters. I really love how the world events and world bosses feel like very unique fights that you need to really think about in order to engage them. I took on a high level boss encounter with about 30 others on NA, and it was the most fun I've had in this game since I started.

The new class is also truly special. In my spare time I dabble in horror writing, and largely in the lovecraftian style. The new class nails my preferred writing style, and my favourite horror subgenre. It feels unknowable, and it feels incomprehensible. It's an ability-based class, which means I needn't worry about weaving light and heavy attacks (thank the All-Knowing One), and its abilities all have enough oomph to keep the new class holding its own in the aforementioned more challenging area.

I really hope that the game will continue to increase in difficulty in the coming months, or at the very least provide more options for players who wish to be challenged (such as myself).

In all, whilst your mileage may vary, I feel as this was an expansion made with me in mind. Bravo!

So I want to start by establishing that there's a lot to like here. There is a 'bigness' to the world that means if you decide you want to explore, there's usually something to find. The stories are well-written, with plenty of interesting and detailed characters to meet.

The problem though is in gameplay. Combat is, for want of a better word, boring. If you're playing overland, you'll be fighting seventy to eighty samey enemies who do no damage whatsoever, and die in two or three hits. You can't walk ten metres without drawing aggro and having to fight off boredom. Some veteran players argue that this means it's time to ignore overland and farm trials. The problem with this is the majority of the game, and the majority of its monetisation comes from the overland expansions.

Until Zenimax fixes this problem, I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to new players. Certainly, there's a great game in here. Potentially, a masterpiece. But without good gameplay, the story feels pointless.

Easily the best version of the game, brought down by the presence of the god-awful EA App. Origin was fine. There was no reason to move away from it.

With that said, this came out early enough that modding is still possible without messing about with tools - just chuck your files into the override folder and watch the fireworks. With that said, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that the EA App can result in bricked games, and EA support is illiterate and incapable (when I reached out to them for EA-app related issues, they requested the same info over and over again and refused to so much as read my responses).

Unfortunately, this is the only available version if you don't have older hardware lying around. The xBox version of the game is guaranteed to work, but of course has a tonne of (very expensive) DLC that prevents you from getting the definitive experience. My suggestion? Buy this, then use tools to remove the EA app dependency.

Good game, but very poor DRM.

Great game, but you're forced into using EA App - a piece of software that could be described as a PuP. Good luck modding - every time EA App updates, the tools break.

If I'm being blunt, for working software you may just be better off finding alternative means of acquiring the game, or playing it on a console (wild that a primarily PC franchise is best played on a console, but there you go).

EDIT: EA App has now broken the game for me - it simply will not launch. Whichever middle manager came up with it deserves to be fired.

Started the game expecting to kill demons. Ended the game killing angels. Rip and Tear/10 would recommend.